The international language of fashion is being translated into Mandarin at the prestigious Fashion Museum.
The Roman Baths has seen an astonishing rise in the number of Chinese visitors enjoying the historic site in their native language by using Acoustiguide audio handsets. As a result, the Council is rolling out the interpretation system in a sixth language, Mandarin, at another of its heritage attractions.
Users of the most spoken language on earth can now fully appreciate the Fashion Museum’s world class collection of contemporary and historical dress – with full interpretation in their native tongue.
Councillor Cherry Beath, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, said: “We’re very excited to be making the audio guides available in Mandarin at the Fashion Museum as they’ve already proved to be a huge success at the Roman Baths. They help to enhance the visitor experience and make Bath & North East Somerset Council’s distinctive heritage attractions even more accessible to all.”
The Acoustiguide audio handsets are included in the visit at no extra charge, and they are the main method of interpretation at both museums. The interpretation service is also available in English, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish at the Fashion Museum and all of these languages plus Russian at the Roman Baths.
Foreign language usage figures show that the number of visitors using Mandarin audio guides at the Roman Baths has increased dramatically from 17,500 in 2008 to 43,200 in 2009; and a staggering 57,100 last year – second only to French, which is marginally ahead at 58,600. It is hoped that the Fashion Museum will also benefit from the introduction of the Mandarin audio guides.
Bernard Donoghue, Director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), said: “Welcoming more than 57,000 Mandarin-speaking visitors per year is a remarkable achievement. Official figures for Chinese visitors to the UK are currently just over 110,000, so either the Roman Baths receive more than half of those leisure visitors or they’re attracting Mandarin-speaking students and people on business in large numbers. Either way, it’s an impressive result which shows that the Roman Baths are a significant draw.”
For more information about Bath & North East Somerset Council’s heritage attractions visit http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/heritage or call the Roman Baths on 01225 477774, the Fashion Museum on 01225 477789 and the Victoria Art Gallery on 01225 477233.
